A Study Of Application Of Categorization And Metaphor To Senior High School English Vocabulary Teaching

Vocabulary has always been regarded as one of the three major essentials，themost important factor, and the crucial approach to a language. As language is thegrammaticalised lexis rather than the lexicalised grammar, of course, vocabularylearning should be in the centre for language learners. However, in the process of ourdomestic English teaching for Senior High School, vocabulary teaching has not beentaken seriously because of the influence of the traditional teaching method, which limitsthe linguistic potential of learners greatly.It is universally aware that any teaching method is affected by the relevant teachingschools and theories, exactly as vocabulary instruction which has gone through thegrammatical analysis approach, the direct approach, the audiolingual method, thecommunicative method and the task-based method. According to the requirements ofvocabulary teaching advanced in the New Curriculum Standards for Senior High School,this thesis has proposed to employ the related cognitive theory of categorization andmetaphor in Senior High School English teaching. This article discusses and dissertatesthe inspiration and influence of categorization and metaphor in the English vocabularyinstruction from the aspects of words expansion, polysemy and cultural connotation. Aswell as the three questions involved in the experiment of vocabulary teaching in SeniorHigh School are stated in the paper:1. Is the cognitive theory more helpful for the learners to build up their vocabularycompared with the traditional teaching method?2. Is it good applying cognitive theory for learners to command the word construction,word-formation, and cultural connotation?3. Are the learners able to develop their capability of vocabulary learning and improvethe competence of language output.After real class practicing, the author found that cognitive theory is more beneficial and effective to cultivate the learners’ learning strategy, stimulate their learninginteresting, deepen understanding the cultural connotation, build up the communicativewords and advance their communicative capacity.